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In 1819, Leprince created a series of at least three small paintings depicting travel by stagecoach (in French, diligence). A touch of ribaldry at once realistic and fanciful can be seen in Le depart de la Diligence; off to one side, a male passenger renders the artist's signature and the date by urinating against a wa... |
The series won high praise. Jacques Arago wrote, "Shall we not put, next to our most caustic creators, Henry Monnier and Xavier Leprince, to whom caricature owes its most biting productions?" |
"Everyone knows the charming lithographs where Mr. Xavier Leprince captured…all the disagreeableness reserved for poor |
travelers taking the stagecoach," begins a review of a play based on the lithographs. The comedy Inconvéniens d'un Voyage en Diligence premiered at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris on Saturday, 11 November 1826, six weeks before Leprince's death. |
The Musée Carnavalet in Paris and the British Museum in London both hold incomplete sets of Inconvéniens, but between the two, all the images can be seen. |
Since at least the 1920s, another album of hand-colored lithographs has been attributed to Leprince. Métamorphoses d'Arlequin, Parades: Jouées sur le Théâtre Français, a set of twelve images published in Brussels in 1826, is "a fascinating and intriguing album that appears to be a political allegory with the theater a... |
Portraits and self-portraits |
A portrait of Leprince by Victor-René Garson was shown in the Paris Salon of 1822. A miniature portrait of Leprince by Frédéric Millet was shown at the Paris Salon of 1824, and in 1896 at an exposition at the Bishop's Palace in Chartres. The location of these works is unknown. |
A black and white photograph of a self-portrait by Leprince is in the Frick Digital Collections; the location and date of the original painting are unknown. Du Sommerard speaks of Paysage de Susten en Suisse (1824, now in the Louvre) as a self-portrait, saying Leprince "pictured himself, from memory, with his pupils, b... |
Leprince painted and drew family members (including portraits of his father and his brother Gustave dated 1824, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres), and also celebrities, including an early portrait of Franz Liszt. |
Death |
With the publication of Inconvéniens d'un Voyage en Diligence, and his work on major commissions from du Sommerard, 1826 was a busy and productive year for Leprince, but at some point he became ill. When the condition lingered and his health deteriorated, doctors advised a move to a milder climate; Leprince went with h... |
The symptoms and attempted cure suggest tuberculosis. Bonnemaison calls it a "long-lasting pulmonary condition." Du Sommerard describes "a chest condition" and a "long agony," and the attempted cure: "he was forced, according to the opinion of the doctors, to tear himself away, a few months ago…to go and expire in a fo... |
On the day after Christmas, 1826, Xavier Leprince died in Nice. "His last sighs were received by his father, whom no consideration, even that of serious infirmities, could separate from his son, until the fatal event which brought him back alone." |
Legacy |
Leprince's works testify to strong fraternal and paternal ties, a high-spirited sense of humor, immense energy, and expansive talents. The shared grief evoked by his premature death is cited by Bonnemaison, who says that "his friends, the most distinguished artists of all genres, the most commendable men of all ranks, ... |
As a teacher, Leprince, in du Sommerard's words, "left behind two brothers whom he was keen to make rivals." Gustave Leprince showed a number of landscapes at the Paris Salon from 1831 to 1837, but his career, like that of his oldest brother, was cut short by an early death (in 1837, at age twenty-six or twenty-seven).... |
In a career of only ten years, Leprince accomplished much, but he remained humble about his achievements. Du Sommerard says that Leprince "was not so deceived" by quick success "as to believe himself to be an accomplished artist. Tormented by the thought, mature beyond his years, 'that a name too soon famous is a heavy... |
A generation after his death, Leprince would be remembered as "one of the most elegant painters of the 19th century school," and in 1886 Paul Marmottan would declare him a "great artist" possessing a talent "very spirited, very French." The 1904 edition of Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers would note that Le... |
Leprince's works continue to attract collectors, as well as curatorial interest, as can be seen by the display of his paintings at both the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum, and a drive to acquire his works by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. But there has not been a large-scale exhibit dedicated to his works, and no... |
Leprince in Museums |
Paris |
Embarquement de bestiaux sur le Passager dans le port de , 1823, Louvre Museum. |
Paysage de Susten en Suisse, 1824, Louvre Museum. |
Leprince's sketchbooks, with hundreds of drawings, Louvre Museum. |
L'aqueduc d'Arcueil, 1820, Musée Carnavalet. |
Concert dans un jardin public, c. 1820, Musée Carnavalet. |
Portrait of François-Joseph Talma (attributed), before 1827, Musée Carnavalet. |
Carnaval au Boulevard du Temple and La fête des Loges, photographs c. 1900 by Albert Brichaut of two otherwise unknown paintings by Leprince, Musée Carnavalet. |
Le port d'Honfleur, l'embarquement des bestiaux, c. 1823, Petit Palais. |
Dijon |
L'Aveugle et les enfants, watercolor, 1822, Musée Magnin, Dijon. |
Pêcheur ficelant une bourriche de poissons, c. 1826, Musée Magnin, Dijon. |
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